Highlights: Netherlands 2-1 Slovakia
Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk defended his side's style of play after they beat Slovakia 2-1 to make the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
The Dutch have faced criticism after some pragmatic performances, despite four wins out of four in South Africa.
But Van Marwijk said: "I think in all the matches we've played you can see we've been able to control possession and deny our opponents any space.
"We simply want to win and I don't think we're doing a bad job."
Van Marwijk also took satisfaction in the form of returning winger Arjen Robben, who scored a fine opening solo goal in his first start at the World Cup following a hamstring injury.
Wesley Sneijder added an 84th-minute second goal to seal the win before Robert Vittek notched a late penalty for Slovakia.
Robben opens the scoring against Slovakia
"It's fantastic," stated Van Marwijk. "After such an injury Robben still has the touch to score a goal like that."
Robben, operating on the right wing, gave his side the lead in the 18th minute, collecting a superb pass from Wesley Sneijder before cutting inside and firing low into the bottom corner.
The Bayern Munich man missed the first two games of the tournament because of a hamstring injury and made a brief substitute appearance for the Dutch in their final group game against Cameroon.
"The most important thing for me is to play my first match," added Robben. "It's only three weeks after the injury. That's not a lot of time. Today I felt good, maybe not 100% but I felt good.
"That was nice today. If you're at the World Cup it should be fun. We didn't play our best match today but the important thing is that we advanced."
The Netherlands were the more dangerous side throughout, creating the greater abundance of chances, but could only add one more goal through Sneijder's simple finish from a Dirk Kuyt pull-back.
"We had a good first half-hour and we started well in the second half," said Van Marwijk. "We should have scored 2-0, 3-0, maybe 4-0 there."
Sneijder notches Netherlands' second
However, they were also grateful to keeper Maarten Stekelenburg, who had little to do throughout but in the second half, with the score at 1-0, made two superb saves in close succession from Miroslav Stoch and Vittek.
"At a crucial stage Maarten Stekelenburg saved us," commented Van Marwijk.
Vittek scored an injury-time penalty for Slovakia - awarded after a foul on the striker by the Dutch keeper.
However, with their progress secured, the Netherlands next face a last-eight clash with Brazil, who beat Chile 3-0 in their second-round match.
"I think we've got to improve for the quarter-finals," conceded Robben. "We'll have to play better than today. We must play better against Brazil or Chile, that's for sure."
No comments:
Post a Comment